Study on preparation and characterisation of pure and lithium incorporated SnS thin films for solar cell applications

A ternary transition metal sulfide was synthesized and characterized by the sonochemical approach in this study, namely a Li (Li) and tin sulfide (SnS) thin film incorporating lithium (Li). Lithium incorporated SnS thin films (Li-SnS) were synthesized by equal molar ratios used in the synthesis approach. In these prepared thin films, the crystallite size averaged 5 nm and the thin films were of good crystalline nature. Nanoparticles in the thin film samples have a uniform sphere shape, with clusters forming in a few places, as seen by FE-SEM images. The presence of Li, Sn and S was confirmed through XRF spectral analysis. From the fingerprint region of the FTIR spectra, the presence of Ni, Li, Sn and sulphur was confirmed and no other impurities were detected. The UV absorption analysis was highly indicating the enhanced photon absorption behaviour of the prepared thin film samples due to the incorporation of Li with SnS samples. The efficiencies of the solar cell fabricated with SnS, Li-SnS, were found to be 6.21 and 7.92 %. From the results it is concluded that Li-SnS thin film samples can be a potential candidate for use as an electrode in solar cell applications